SOCCER
IOC sure of no Cup clash
There will be no clash between the 2022 Winter Olympics and the World Cup finals to be hosted by Qatar the same year, International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Thomas Bach told the BBC on Monday. Bach said he was confident FIFA president Sepp Blatter would stick to his pledge that the finals, which are due to be switched from the searing heat of June and July, would not take place in January and February when the Winter Games are penciled in for. “I have no reason not to believe [Blatter],” Bach said. “He made it very clear that a clash of these two great events is in nobody’s interest.” World body FIFA has been considering hosting the finals in January and February or November and December.
RUGBY UNION
Stars farewell Ireland great
Irish stars paid tribute to the man considered to be Ireland’s greatest player during a memorial service for the late Jack Kyle in Belfast on Tuesday. Kyle, who died aged 88 last week, was in 2002 voted the best player ever to come from Ireland, beating the likes of Willie John McBride, Mike Gibson and Brian O’Driscoll. Kyle, a flyhalf, won 46 caps for Ireland, as well as six for the British and Irish Lions, and was a key figure in Ireland’s Grand Slam in the then-Five Nations in 1948. Away from sport, Belfast-born Kyle spent more than 30 years working as a surgeon in Zambia. Following Wednesday’s service for Kyle, who was buried at a private family funeral earlier in the day, McBride said: “He was one of the great men. How do you define gentleman? Well, for me it is two words and those are Jack Kyle.”
RUGBY UNION
Former player reports attack
Former South Africa international and World Cup winner Hannes Strydom said on Tuesday that he had suffered a fractured skull and spent a night in intensive care after being attacked by six people in an attempted carjacking. Strydom told television channel eNCA that he fought off the attackers, but was left with cuts on his head and a fracture to his skull and jaw. He said that he was attacked on Monday in Pretoria when he saw a person lying on the road and stopped his car, thinking they needed help. He said the attackers threw bricks at his car, with one smashing his window and hitting him in the head. The people tried to steal his car, but he fought them off and drove himself to the hospital, he said. “I remember I was standing there surrounded by six people and I had to fight for my life,” the 2.01m former second-rower said.
OLYMPICS
Rio bay image removed
The Brazilian Ministry of Tourism has removed from its Instagram feed a photomontage that pictures the Rio de Janeiro bay where Olympic sailing events will take place as a tropical paradise of crystalline waters — a far cry from the reality of its brackish, sewage-filled waters. In the city’s Olympic bid, authorities promised to slash the amount of trash and raw sewage flowing in the bay by 80 percent ahead of the Games, but the waters remain so polluted that some sailors have voiced concerns about competitive and health risks. The photomontage pictured the Gloria Marina, the main dock on Guanabara Bay, as a pristine, undeveloped cove of sheer rocks, with a limpid waterfall and sailboats anchored in clear turquoise waters. A report in Rio’s O Globo newspaper said the photo was originally the work of Instagram user Marcos Calil, whose feed is largely made up of heavily doctored images of Rio landscapes. However, the ministry’s caption gave no indication the photo was fake.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but